Columbus Cottonmouths goaltender Shannon Szabados of the Southern Professional Hockey League talks to reporters after her game against the Knoxville Ice Bears in Columbus, Georgia, March 15, 2014. Szabados who was the goaltender for the gold medal Canadian Women's hockey team joined the Cottonmouths on Thursday and became the first female to start in the Southern Professional Hockey League. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT ICE HOCKEY) less

Columbus Cottonmouths goaltender Shannon Szabados of the Southern Professional Hockey League talks to reporters after her game against the Knoxville Ice Bears in Columbus, Georgia, March 15, 2014. Szabados who ... more

The 64-year-old Hall of Famer is recovering from an advanced form of skin cancer that kept him from being a guest instructor with the Philadelphia Phillies in spring training. He was at camp in Clearwater, Fla., Sunday and publicly spoke for the first time about his illness - Stage 3 melanoma - and the two operations, radiation and chemotherapy treatments that followed. "I feel fantastic right now," he said. Looking fit and trim, the three-time NL MVP still plans to join the Phillies' television crew to work 13 home Sunday games this season. "The moral of the story is everybody get checked," Schmidt said.

The goalie for Canada's gold medal women's Olympic hockey team made her debut in the men's Southern Professional Hockey League. Szabados, 27, had 27 saves, although her Columbus Cottonmouths lost 4-3 to the Knoxville Ice Bears on Saturday. It was her first game since the Olympic women's final Feb. 20. She did practice with the NHL's Edmonton Oilers on March 5 when they were short a backup goaltender. No woman has played in an NHL regular-season game. Goaltender Manon Rheaume became the first to play in an exhibition game with Tampa Bay in 1992.